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Welcome to Boys & Girls Nursery’s consultation webpage detailing our new plans for the refurbishment and sensitive extension of ‘Fir Island’, a property located on the corner of The Ridgeway and Burtonhole Lane.
This locally listed building once acted as accommodation for students at the National Institute for Medical Research but it has lain empty since 2007, with Boys & Girls Nursery acquiring the site in 2019.
Childcare Demand and a Bright Future
Our own research, coupled with Barnet Council’s own demographic data, suggests that there is a critical under supply and growing demand for childcare provision in Barnet generally, and in Mill Hill specifically.
Back in 2023, the Council’s Childcare Sufficiency Assessment identified that there were 24,102 children under the age of five living in the Borough compared to a maximum of just 11,296 early years childcare places offered by childminders and private, voluntary and independent nurseries of all types.
Here in Mill Hill, recent residential developments at Millbrook Park, IBSA House and NIMR have added an additional 798 young people aged 0-4 to the local community, and our research shows that there is no 7am to 7pm nursery provision within a 1km radius of the site. There is also just one location within a 2km radius but there is no available at Belmont Farm.
We therefore believe there is considerable unmet and indeed growing demand for full daycare provision in this location and having assessed a range of local sites we believe that Fir Island is the most appropriate location.